Investigative Interviewing Research Laboratory

Eyewitness Testimony & Lineup Identification

Our research in this area has focused on several important factors that influence both recall of information by witnesses and the likelihood of subsequent identification of the perpetrator from a photographic lineup. We approach each of these issues from within both basic research and more applied eyewitness paradigms, with the intent of applying basic theories of memory in understanding factors that influence eyewitness performance. A brief description of each phenomenon and representative publications from our lab are provided below.

         Cross-Racial Identification

Faces of one's own race are better remembered when compared with faces of another, less familiar race. This phenomenon, referred to as the "cross-race effect" or "own-race bias," has been demonstrated across a variety of memory tasks (e.g., recognition, identification, forced choice, etc.), in both adults and children, and across a variety of ethnic groups (e.g., White, Black, Hispanic, Asian, etc.). Our research has focused on explicating the cognitive or social psychological mechanisms that might underlie the phenomenon. More specifically, we have been examining the role of perceptual learning and encoding-based processes that might substantiate superior memory for own-race faces.

Brigham, J. C., Bennett, L. B., Meissner, C. A., & Mitchell, T. L. (2007). The influence of race on eyewitness memory. In R. Lindsay, D. Ross, J. Read, & M. Toglia, (Eds). Handbook of Eyewitness Psychology: Memory for People (pp. 257-281), Lawrence Erlbaum & Associates.

Chiroro, P. M., Tredoux, C. G., Radaelli, S., & Meissner, C. A. (in press). Recognising faces across continents: The effect of within-race variations on the own-race bias in face recognition. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review.

Corenblum, B., & Meissner, C. A. (2006). Recognition of faces of ingroup and outgroup children and adults. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 93, 187-206.

Evans, J. R., Marcon, J. L., & Meissner, C. A. (in press). Cross-racial lineup identification: The potential benefits of context reinstatement. Psychology, Crime, & Law.

Jackiw, L. B., Arbuthnott, K. D., Pfeifer, J. E., Marcon, J. L., & Meissner, C. A. (2008). Examining the cross-race effect in lineup identification using Caucasian and First Nations samples. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science, 40, 52-57.

Marcon, J. L., Meissner, C. A., & Malpass, R. S. (in press). Cross-race effect. In B. Cutler’s (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Psychology & Law. Sage publications.

Meissner, C. A., & Brigham, J. C. (2001). Thirty years of investigating the own-race bias in memory for faces: A meta-analytic review. Psychology, Public Policy, & Law, 7, 3-35.

Meissner, C. A., Brigham, J. C., & Butz, D. A. (2005). Memory for own- and other-race faces: A dual-process approach. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 19, 545-567.

Slone, A. E., Brigham, J. C., & Meissner, C. A. (2000). Social and cognitive factors affecting the own-race bias in Whites. Basic & Applied Social Psychology, 22, 71-84.

        The Description-Identification Relationship & "Verbal Overshadowing"

Individuals' ability to describe a face does not always relate to their ability to identify a face. Similarly, the processes that govern face descriptions vs. identification appear distinct. Our research has continued to examine this description-identification relationship through the "verbal overshadowing" effect -- the finding that describing a face via verbal description can subsequently impair identification of that face from a lineup. We have investigated this phenomenon through the mediating role of "instructional bias", namely the extent to which an individual's response criterion at recall might influence the likelihood of a verbal overshadowing effect. In a series of studies, we have found that pushing witnesses to provide very extensive and complete descriptions can lead to errors in their description that are related to subsequent misidentification of the target face. In contrast, individuals asked to provide brief, but accurate, descriptions perform significantly better on the identification task when compared with no-description control participants.

Meissner, C. A. (2002). Applied aspects of the instructional bias effect in verbal overshadowing. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 16, 911-928.

Meissner, C. A., & Brigham, J. C. (2001). A meta-analysis of the verbal overshadowing effect in face identification. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 15, 603-616.

Meissner, C. A., Brigham, J. C., & Kelley, C. M. (2001). The influence of retrieval processes in verbal overshadowing. Memory & Cognition, 29, 176-186.

Meissner, C. A., & Memon, A. (2002). Verbal overshadowing: A special issue exploring theoretical and applied issues. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 16, 869-872.

Meissner, C. A., Sporer, S. L., & Schooler, J. W. (2007). Person descriptions as eyewitness evidence. In R. Lindsay, D. Ross, J. Read, & M. Toglia, (Eds). Handbook of Eyewitness Psychology: Memory for People (pp. 3-34), Lawrence Erlbaum & Associates.

Meissner, C. A., Sporer, S. L., & Susa, K. J. (2008). A theoretical and meta-analytic review of the relationship between verbal descriptions and identification accuracy in memory for faces. European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 20, 414-455.

Susa, K. J., & Meissner, C. A. (in press). Description accuracy. In B. Cutler’s (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Psychology & Law. Sage publications.

         Theoretical & Practical Issues governing Eyewitness Lineup Identification

Research suggests that erroneous eyewitness identification is the primary factor underlying wrongful conviction in the United States. Our research has sought to both identify procedures that might alleviate the likelihood of misidentification and to understand the cognitive and social psychological processes that govern identification as a function of both system and estimator variables. Research in this arena includes factors that influence lineup construction and evaluations of fairness, lineup similarity and nominal size, instructions provided to witnesses, lineup presentation factors, and computerized administration applications.

Bornstein, B. H., & Meissner, C. A. (2008). Basic and applied issues in eyewitness research: A Munsterberg centennial retrospective. Applied Cognitive Psychology.

Brigham, J. C., Meissner, C. A., & Wasserman, A. W. (1999). Applied issues in the construction and expert assessment of photo lineups. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 13, S73-S92.

Brigham, J. C., Wasserman, A. W., & Meissner, C. A. (1999). Disputed eyewitness identification evidence: Important legal and scientific issues. Court Review, 36, 12-25.

Haw, R. M., Dickinson, J. J., & Meissner, C. A. (2007). The phenomenology of carryover effects between showup and lineup identification. Memory, 15, 117-127.

Lane, S. M., & Meissner, C. A. (in press). A “middle road” approach to bridging the basic- applied divide in eyewitness identification research. Applied Cognitive Psychology.

MacLin, O. H., Meissner, C. A., & Zimmerman, L. A. (2005). PC_Eyewitness: A computerized framework for the administration and practical application of research in eyewitness psychology. Behavior Research Methods, 37, 324-334.

MacLin, M. K., Zimmerman, L. A., Meissner, C. A., MacLin, O. H., Tredoux, C. G., & Malpass, R. S. (in press). The science of collecting eyewitness evidence: Recommendations and an argument for collaborative efforts between researchers and law enforcement. Police Practice & Research.

Malpass, R. S., Susa, K. J., & Meissner, C. A. (in press). Training eyewitnesses. In B. Cutler’s (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Psychology & Law. Sage publications.

Malpass, R. S., Zimmerman, L. A, Meissner, C. A., Ross, S. J., Rigoni, M. E., Topp, L. D., Pruss, N., Tredoux, C. T., & Leyva, J. M. (2005). Eyewitness memory and identification. The San Antonio Defender, 7, 2-13.

Meissner, C. A., Tredoux, C. G., Parker, J. F., & MacLin, O. H. (2005). Eyewitness decisions in simultaneous and sequential lineups: A dual-process signal detection theory analysis. Memory & Cognition, 33, 783-792.

Tredoux, C. G., Meissner, C. A., Malpass, R. S., & Zimmerman, L. A. (2004). Eyewitness identification. In C. Spielberger’s (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Applied Psychology (pp. 875-887). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.

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